Union Soldier Marshall Sherman of Minnesota stands in front of the Confederate flag he seized from a Virginia regiment in the Battle of Gettysburg.
Despite a 1905 congressional resolution requiring the return of captured flags, the 28th
Virginia flag was not returned! Wow. Minnesota governors have cited the flag's historical importance to the state and the dishonor that returning it would represent to the Union soldiers who died, as reasons for keeping it.
Virginia has made repeated requests for the flag's return, including loan requests for anniversaries and other commemorative events, all of which have been denied.
The flag is currently in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society and is occasionally displayed for educational purposes.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/minnesota-confederate-flag-virginia/
denied seven separate requests to return the flag — in 1905, 1961, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2013. A representative of the MNHS confirmed the organization had received no additional requests since 2013.
Minnesota had been a state for just three years when it became among the first states (and some claim the very first state) to commit soldiers to fight for the Union in the Civil War.
Minnesota Gov. Alexander Ramsey offered up 1,000 men for national service.
Patrick Hill’s story, “Colors of Valor — the 28th Virginia Regiment’s Flag in Minnesota,” published for the Minnesota Historical Society, that summer of 1863, the Confederates were within striking distance of Philadelphia, with some historians theorizing that Gen. Lee was hoping to strike coal fields near Harrisburg to cripple the industrial power of the North.
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